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The Power of Archiving

Nothing says “uplifting blog post!” like the topic of rape. But rape was only the inspiration for this post!

Inspired by Missouri Rep. and Republican Senate nominee Todd Akin’s ridiculous attempt to control women’s access to reproductive choices, I’m anticipating a whole slew of new remixes this election season. Akin’s original statements (“if it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down”, meaning that women shouldn’t have access to abortions, ever, because if they don’t want the baby, it will just disappear) were rescinded yesterday when he issued an apology ad on TV.

The more politicans use video to communicate their message (and then apologize for it) the more content there is. The more video content, the more remixes. I’m all for the archive.

Remember the influx of remix content during the Bush administration? That was is 2008. Now, with 72 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute, the source footage is even more abundant and, with the stakes high, politicians have become more absurd, making options for subversion more possible than ever.

For example, did you know that Mitt Romney’s Mom ran for Senate in 1970, and she was Pro Choice? Here’s a quick supercut of Romney’s stance on women’s bodies through the years.

Back-to-back you get the point: He’s flip flopped when convenient. But then watch this:

Talk about the power of archiving. It’s now the only way to hold those running for office accountable and even then, a good speech writer and PR person can take a look at the video evidence and weave a new narrative around it to support their cause. But we all know “organic” (the new word for DIY or non-compensated work) content spreads faster than anything else on the web. Ideas that spread, win. The remixers job is to take all that abundant source material and weave a new, more honest narrative, one that spreads faster than an on-air interview.

It’s awesome that politicians can’t technically escape their pasts. Nevertheless, we usually look to hold politicians we don’t support responsible for their flip-flopping and their past ignorant statements. We have to hold all of our politicians to the same standard–even the one’s we like.
But we also have to leave room for politicians to change their minds. A prime example is President Obama’s newfound support of gay marriage.
Still, Akin is a moron, and Romney wants the presidency so bad he’ll say anything that might win votes.

True that. But I think even Democratics were willing to admit that Kerry flip-flopped, especially on the War issue. Obama came out in support of gay marriage when it was safe for him… he never said he was against it just never said anything. But yeah, we have to hold both accountable…and remember it’s not just a 2 party system of dumb and dumber.